


Meta - Alternate Universe Stories in TS Fanfic

by Mab (Mab_Browne)



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-14
Updated: 2008-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-13 03:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15355392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mab_Browne/pseuds/Mab
Summary: A look at Alternate Universe stories.  Definite slash bias, and potential spoilers for some stories, although I've tried to not be too specific.  Advance with caution if slash or spoilers bother you.





	Meta - Alternate Universe Stories in TS Fanfic

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Elaine, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Artifact Storage Room 3](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Artifact_Storage_Room_3) and was moved to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project in 2018. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are the creator and would like to claim this work, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Artifact Storage Room 3’s collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/artifactstorageroom3/profile).
> 
>  **Author's notes:** And as it happens, much of the interesting stuff gets said in the comments of my original Live Journal post. This essay is slightly edited from that.
> 
>  
> 
> [Here it is](http://mab-browne.livejournal.com/100070.html#cutid1)
> 
>  
> 
> Like I say in the summary and essay - I'm a slasher *g*

This meta ramble mentions stories and authors by name, and while I’ve tried to avoid obvious spoilers, they may pop up by default, as it were.

Alternative universes – they seem to polarise viewpoints. From what I’ve seen from web wanderings, people either actively enjoy AUs or they actively dislike them. I love them, both to read and to write. There’s a wide variety of AU types, which vary between fandoms, according to what’s offered by the original source material. Some types of AUs cross fandom boundaries – high school or college AUs where canon characters are adult, SF AUs in non science-fiction sources, the ever popular vampire AU in non-blood-sucking canon - and other AUs are specific to a fandom. I’m not including future-fic here, I’m looking at stories which play with the original source material. I’m also not looking at anything which becomes AU through the process of jossing. And by my standards, slash per se is not an AU…

There’s one common AU which may or may not involve major twisting to canon source – the ‘what if’ AU. Canon setting may be used with subtle or major differences. The main purpose of these appears to have fun with the concept. Some people use parallel universe as a term for AUs that present a divergence in canon. What if Blair and Jim never met, or met some different way? Em Brunson’s ‘Detour’ and Alyjude’s ‘Two Faces’ provide good examples. What if Jim and Carolyn never divorced and then Jim met a compelling young stranger in a bar, such as happens in Jack Reuben Darcy’s story ‘More and Less’ ? Morgan’s ‘Predator’ series takes the ‘Jim and Blair don’t meet until later’ canon divergence and twists it into pretzels.

The other form of ‘what if’ takes the characters out of canon altogether, in ever widening circles. Scientists; fire-fighters; members of SG teams; vampires; travellers in the Old West; singers in a rock band. You name a setting, and a goodly number of them have been done. Some of these AUs are a response to ‘Sentinel Too’ and the events of season four. Alex Barnes never came into their lives, the dissertation was never an issue. They ‘put right’ the conflict between the pairing, returning their lives to the relaxed equilibrium of first and second season. There may well be threats to the relationship, but they are purely external, and not related to any stresses inherent in Jim and Blair’s personalities and their relationship. TS is a fandom that is all about happy and all too often destined love, a concept that pops up all over the place, and is an entirely other essay.

One reason that people who don’t read AUs give is that characterisation is never right, and that they want to read about the ‘real’ characters. This can be a valid criticism, but if you don’t recognise Jim and Blair in an AU then in my humble opinion it’s a bad AU. Some character understanding does come out of our perception of where Jim and Blair, or Bodie and Doyle, or John and Rodney, or Sam and Dean stand in their society. If it’s impossible to distinguish the characters in some other setting, that might be the sign of an excellent canon source, or a very poorly realised one. But as I’ve said before, Jim and Blair are easily portable. It’s not just the senses, either. The show’s creators set out to make a clear contrast between their characters, and so we have tall, laconic, military-minded Jim set against not so tall, talkative, liberal academic Blair. Those qualities, and others, are easy enough to transfer to other settings.

I’ve read widely but not deeply in a number of fandoms, but TS certainly seems to have more AUs and a wider range of them than say, for example, Starsky and Hutch or The Professionals. (Although it's totally beaten by Stargate Atlantis which has produced an amazing range of alternate universe stories.) Maybe this relates to the fact that TS crosses a lot of genres whereas S&H and Pros are very firmly set in their cop/action milieus. Whether the creators intended or not, TS contains more elements than the average cop/action/buddy show. There’s the science-fictional elements of Jim’s senses, the fantasy/mystical aura of the blue dreams and the events of ‘Sentinel Too’, ghost stories in ‘Night Shift’ and ‘Waiting Room’ Maybe the fact that canon ranges around like this makes it easier for the fans to go those AU places, or maybe it sets a tone that appeals to writers who’d go those places naturally.

Technically, ‘what if’ covers all AUs. But there are aims, if you will, in the AU setting that a writer chooses to use. Some AUs are there to explore a broader setting of Jim and Blair’s world. Some are there to explore something very specific, and this is the point where I remind people that I’m a slasher. One subset of AUs allows the writer to play with sexual settings that might seem OOC in the canon setting. Jim and Blair in sex clubs, playing intense BDSM games comes to mind. Planet of the sex-starved Sentinels also presents itself. 

I have an expression - writing to the kink - which I use about AUs. If a story is written to the kink, what I mean by that is that the needs of the writer to see a certain scenario over-rule the environment, rather than the environment of the AU shaping the characters and story. This is a balancing act, obviously, because in general people are in fanfic to see the familiar, however novel the set-dressing might be. For example, I think that Boyd’s ‘Love Amidst the Ruins’ is a vivid piece of writing, and a fascinating AU setting, but I have to squint to see Jim and Blair. On the other hand, there are any number of AU settings that to my mind are there to provide a scene that hits a kink of the writer’s, not necessarily purely a sexual kink, either. I began my fannish career in science fiction and fantasy, and for me, these AUs don’t satisfy. Author names and titles are withheld to protect the not-so-innocent – namely me…

Writing to the kink can relate to two common TS AU tropes – Blair (or Jim, but most commonly Blair) as hooker, and settings where sentinels and guides are known. 

Most, but not all, TS hooker fics are not actually about the sex. What they are about is rescue. I have a personal preference for TS stories where the dynamics of the relationship may change or be unequal at certain times, but where the personal power that the two men have over each other is equal over the long term. Arguments over whether Jim is an ungrateful caveman or Blair is a callous, careless user rise out of differing perceptions of the dynamic between the two of them. Rescue is a common ‘traditional romance’ theme. Man physically or financially rescues woman, woman emotionally rescues or redeems man. And sometimes in slash, it’s fairly clear who’s cast as token woman.

At first sight, hooker!Blair fic puts all the power in Jim’s hands. However, there are various levelling devices in stories which I particularly enjoy. Elaine’s ‘Paying the Rent’ makes the senses the levelling device, and over three stories also gives us the chance to see Blair develop into a mature and competent man, rather than staying forever a dependent and sexually wanton man-child. Castalie’s ‘Night’ series gives us a Jim who lives on the fringes as much as his Blair does. The sense is that the two men are a refuge for each other.

Jane Davitt is currently writing an AU about hooker!Jim, and this one is very definitely about the sex, and lovely, kinky sex it is too. But it seems to me that it’s also about rescue. Blair is sexually awkward and only just coming to grips with his nature. Jim has hidden his feelings behind a shell of professionalism, and I’m hoping to see that shell crack. Although that is, in the end, up to Jane. (Essay edited to observe that Point of Contact is now finished, and very fun it is too.)

The great, specific to the fandom AU is, of course, the setting where sentinels and guides are known. I’m indulging particular interest in this because I’m setting out to write an SF AU with my version of a sentinel/guide society. The most influential example of this sort of story is Susan Foster’s GDP (Guide Development Programme) universe, a gen series which gave the fandom the expression, ‘intense bonding’, and a theme of guides as a down-trodden and abused slave caste. But the rescue comes in again, because Jim’s innate sense of justice rises above the expectations of his society. And of course, since sentinels cannot function without guides in these environments, Blair gets to rescue his sentinel too.

I don’t read so much of the original GDP. For starters, did I mention I’m a slasher? Intense bonding just doesn’t cut it. *g* Also, I have problems with the world building. But there’s no denying that the concepts have influenced a lot of TS AU writers.

Sentinels and guides a known quantity also again lends itself to the sexual fantasies. These can be fun, but (from my point of view) all too often involve ritual chains, biting, and shouts of ‘MINE!’ but, sadly, not too much else. Those things are fine and dandy in moderation but I’m getting picky in my fannish old age.

So, the purpose of AUs? In general, it’s to have fun and show that these gorgeous men belong together. I have no problem with that, although I could wish that there was just a little less destiny in the TS mix sometimes. But destiny _is_ a nifty concept to play with, so I’ll restrain the bitching. There’s always some stories out there that either incidentally or purposely play with the wider fandom tropes, and besides any mentioned here, some other favourites AUs are:

‘There Is No Gene’, by T’Mar (Gattaca universe)  
‘Inclination’ by Laura Jaquez Valentine (Star Trek universe)  
‘The Unlikely CEO’ by Annabelle Leigh and Shar  
‘Soldier of Fortune’ by Akablonded (a film ‘adaptation’)  
‘Captive’ by Rentgirl2  
‘Bakari’ by Alyjude  
Brigid’s fairy story adaptations, and ‘The Silver Torc’ by Corbeau  
‘Moonhunt’ by Dolimir  
‘Conforming to Requirements’ by Fluterbev  
‘Taming of the Guide’ by Elaine

And this is hardly a full list, just one off the top of my head...


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